PCM wrestlers place third in large field at Fort Madison

FORT MADISON — Half of the 14 Mustang wrestlers who entered the Fort Madison Invitational placed fifth or better this past weekend.

PCM’s wrestling team competed against a large field in the two-day tournament and placed third overall.

Led by Kaden Clark and Remington Fry, the Mustangs scored 334 points and were just eight points back of host Fort Madison (342) for second.

Dubuque Hempstead won the team championship with 380.5 points. It had 15 wrestlers in the field, while Fort Madison entered 13 and PCM had 14. Clear Creek-Amana (277) and Cedar Rapids Kennedy (262) were fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 23-team field.

Fry (126) and Clark (285) both placed second in their weight brackets, while Kaliber Fry (106), Tucker Wheeler (138), William Vanderpool (152) and Nate Richards (195) all finished fourth and Hewitt Brinegar (145) ended up fifth.

Clark (14-4) was perfect up until the championship match. He finished 3-0 in pool play with two first-period pins and then won twice by fall in bracket play before losing in the 285 final.

Remington Fry (13-5) opened pool play with a 14-4 win at 126 and then won by fall and lost by fall. In bracket play, he won his first two matches before losing in the championship match.

Kaliber Fry (8-4) was 2-1 with two pins in pool play and then finished 2-2 in bracket play. He was fourth at 106.

Wheeler, Vanderpool and Brinegar all went 5-2 on the weekend.

Wheeler (18-4) won all three pool-play matches by fall at 138 on Friday and then was 2-2 on Day 2.

Vanderpool (11-7) won twice by fall and claimed an 11-5 win in pool play at 152 before scoring two bonus-point wins in bracket play.

Brinegar (13-8) won by fall, won by forfeit and claimed a 6-2 win in pool play at 145. In bracket play, he rotated wins and losses and one of the wins was a 9-0 major decision.

Richards split his two pool-play matches at 195. And did the same thing in his four bracket-play matches. He was 3-3 for the tourney with three pins.

Zach Richards (120) finished seventh in his weight class, Charlie Sitzmann (113) and Wyatt Wheeler (170) were eighth and Sawyer Bouwkamp (132) finished 10th.

Wyatt Wheeler and Finn Wilson both competed at 170 and Wilson was 11th after starting his tournament with a loss by fall to Wheeler.

Wilson and Joel Greiner (220) both won three matches by fall. Greiner placed 11th at his weight. Jeffrey McDanel (160) finished 17th at his weight after winning twice by fall in bracket play.